THE SECRETS OF LEARNING MATH
There are essentially two secrets to learning mathematics; the first is concerned with the content and the other with teaching. There is far too much content at each grade level, and every few years the amount of content is increased. Under these conditions, students are urged to memorize concepts without understanding in order to maintain an acceptable grade level on tests. Research has determined that, for most math students, the memorization of concepts without understanding is stored in the short-term memory and soon forgotten. The first secret to student success in math is to reduce the amount of content at each level so that there is time to learn and understand the concepts.
The second secret is one concerned with teaching. I have often heard that in the history of education, the "best" education took place in the one-room schoolhouse. If this is true, then it is because in a one-room schoolhouse education often came about as a result of older students teaching younger ones; both students gain from this experience. When a student is able to explain in his or her own words a math concept, that student understands the concept. The second secret to student success in learning math is to have students understand math concepts and demonstrate their understanding the concept by correctly explaining it in their own words to someone else.
The predominate guideline for mathematics curriculum the past few decades has been acceleration and this has resulted in all math courses having too much content. This means that most students must memorize math to pass the course. Unfortunately memorizing is short-term and not related to understanding mathematics.
Conclusions from the Research
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Conclusions from the Research
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There seems to be two main factors that could be corrected in our teaching of math courses that would go a long way toward eliminating the current problem. These two factors are memorization and acceleration.
Memorization:
Students are trying to memorize all necessary facts that are needed to pass the course. Unfortunately, this is not possible for most students and such a course of action has no long-term benefits; hence causing the basic problem in mathematics.
Acceleration:
We are attempting to teach too much too fast in math courses. This, in turn, causes students to rely on memorization as their best hope to pass the course. We do not give them the proper amount of time to understand concepts, which reduces the need for memory.
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